Irving Morrell
Irving Morrell started the First Great War as an infantry captain, serving with distinction until he received a leg wound. Even while in the hospital his mind was never idle, conceiving a helmet that would help soldiers survive on the front. After recovering, he continued to serve his country, rapidly making a name for himself as a resourceful and competent officer. After some time on the General Staff, he was transferred to the Canadian front. While there, he displayed his talents as a field commander again by swiftly and decisively taking several key strongpoints. During the latter part of this campaign, he also had two foreign military observers attached to his battalion. He impressed both men greatly with his tactical prowess, including using the Canadian military's aggressiveness against them. His victory in that front, taking away all Canadian trans-continental railways, saw him promoted to lieutenant colonel. Around this time, he started developing an interest in barrels, the TL-191 name for tanks. He transferred to the front again, this time under George Custer on the Tennessee front. He was one of the masterminds behind the Barrel Roll Offensive, a strategy which violated War Department doctrine on barrel use. The strategy involved a massed attack of barrels, supported by infantry. The offensive was wildly successful, pushing the Confederate forces back miles along a front whose advances were typically measured in feet. The Barrel Roll Offensive continued with Morrell masterminding a plan to surround and annihilate a Confederate stronghold. The plan succeeded, and the Barrel Roll Offensive forced a change in doctrine. The smashing success saw him promoted to colonel, and quickly won the war. Afterwards he transferred into the Barrel Works, the US Army's R&D Department for Barrels. While there, he tested and designed new models of barrels for the US Army, as well as getting married. The Socialist administration elected after the war ended closed down the Barrel Works, however, and he was transferred back to the General Staff, and almost immediately sent back out to British Colombia to keep the conquered Canadians in line. After nine years of success, he was reinstated in the Barrel Works until General Daniel MacArthur required his services to repress riots in the state of Huston. Morrell did so, even resorting to canister shot to keep the hostile crowds at bay. After a plebiscite returned the state to the Confederacy, he was stationed in Ohio to try and stem the eventual Confederate tide. When the Confederacy attacked, Morrell was sorely undersupplied and underequipped. Regardless, he beat a fighting retreat and managed to both delay and harrass the Confederacy enough to make them take notice. In consequence of said skill, the Confederates hired a sniper to kill him. When he survived the blow, the Confederate General Staff went into a mass panic. This proved justified, as Morrell and his plans were instrumental in cutting off the Confederate army assaulting Pittsburgh and throwing them back along their original salient into Ohio. This victory was a turning point in the war, and lead to them cutting the salient in two. After throwing the Confederates out of the United States, he then went on to formulate a plan to invade the Confederacy. He replicated the real world's Sherman's March to the Sea, using armor, air power, and infantry to cut the Confederacy's eastern section in half. After successfully doing so, he coordinated strikes deeper into the Confederate heartland from the General Staff in Philadelphia. He was nearly caught in a nuke, but was outside the blast radius and survived. At the end of the war, now a full General, he was chosen to receive the Confederacy's unconditional surrender and return to the United Staes. Afterwards, he was appointed the military governor of the Confederacy's east coast, essentially everything he had conquered; while there, he was a leading figure in creating racial equality. Category:DF